The six biggest retail technology news stories of the week
It’s Friday, the weekend is almost upon us, so let’s kick back and reflect on another eventful week for the retail systems space. Here's your briefing on the most important stories from the past five days, including Walmart, DroneUp, Ikea, Getir, Amazon, and Firework.
1. Amazon Style bricks and mortar clothing store launches in L.A.
Amazon has opened its first physical clothing store, Amazon Style, in the Greater Los Angeles area.
The 30,000 square feet location is situated at The Americana at Brand shopping destination.
Using the Amazon Shopping app, customers send items to a fitting room, where they can use a touchscreen to browse more options, rate items, and request more sizes or styles that are delivered to the room.
Machine learning algorithms, meanwhile, produce tailored, real-time recommendations for each customer as they shop.
Amazon Style doesn’t use the Just Walk Out checkout-free tech found in Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods locations, instead opting for the Amazon One palm recognition service.
2. Walmart teams with DroneUp to extend drone delivery to four million US households
Walmart is set to expand its DroneUp delivery network to 34 sites by the end the year, providing the potential to reach four million US households across six states – Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
The move provides the ability to deliver over one million packages by drone in a year.
Between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., customers will be able to order from tens of thousands of eligible items for delivery by air in as little as 30 minutes. The total weight of delivery is up to 10lbs and the fee is $3.99.
Walmart is also planning to scale its drone infrastructure, offering local businesses and municipalities aerial drone solutions in areas like insurance, emergency response and real estate.
3. Ocado Group looks to acquire robotics startup Myrmex
Ocado Group has announced the proposed acquisition of materials handling robotics startup Myrmex for approximately €10.2 million.
The two companies expect to complete the deal by 6th June.
Ocado Group previously acquired a minority stake in Myrmex in October 2020 and appointed it to design and develop a proprietary solution, Automated Frameload, that automates the loading of totes containing customer orders onto frames ready for dispatch.
This will be going live in Ocado Group CFCs later this year.
4. Firework closes $150m SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led Series B round
Livestreaming commerce platform, Firework, has secured $150 million in Series B financing, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
Total funding to date is $235 million.
“With this investment, our growth engine is firing on all cylinders,” says Firework Co-Founder and CEO Vincent Yang.
“Our core technology and business model have already been proven in the market many times over, and with this capital to realise our vision, Firework can now focus most of our efforts on evolution and growth, in all its forms – growing our team, growing our user base, and growing our technology, to ensure our platform never loses step with the bleeding edge of next-generation customer experience.”
5. Ikea launches first omnichannel centric city store in Canada
Ingka Group, the largest Ikea retailer, this week opened the first Ikea city store in Canada, as part of its commitment to get closer to its customers.
Ikea Toronto Downtown is the retailer’s 15th store in the country.
Ingka Group’s recent investments in Canada include a new distribution centre in Beauharnois, new planning studios (known as Ikea Plan and order points in Canada) and new pick-up points, as well as the redevelopment of its Ottawa location to ship customer orders directly from the store.
6. Quick commerce firm Getir set to axe staff and rein in expansion plans
Turkish rapid grocery delivery big hitter Getir is gearing up to cut 14% of its staff globally.
The company employs some 32,000 people in the nine markets where it operates, which works out to 4,480 people impacted by the downsizing, according to a report by TechCrunch.
These are challenging times for the rapid grocery delivery space.
Gorillas is laying off 300 staff and exiting Italy, Spain, Denmark and Belgium.
Gopuff cut 400 staff in March.
Avo reduced its workforce by a third, then ceased Israel and New York operations.
And Jiffy has shifted from grocery delivery to providing software for other delivery apps.
In addition to slashing its workforce, Getir, which in March raised $768 million at an $11.8 billion valuation. is also planning to rein in its expansion plans, including hiring, marketing investments and promotions.
It is blaming this on rising inflation and the deteriorating macroeconomic outlook around the world.
